Autumn Bento Buffet: Trick or Treat Edition

The birth of Autumn!

October marks the start of the fall (Autumn) season in Japan. Trees shed their leaves and at night look a bit spooky, as if in anticipation of Halloween that is coming on October 31. At night a chill starts to announce itself, not just a promise that winter will be in a few months but also that something spooky is around the corner. Children share Yokai stories and urban legends late at night to scare each other. It is the time of tricks and treats… Relax, and explore new anime, nice articles about traditional food and a fun AMV that may trick or treat you. We are YOUR monthly source of anime news. Itadakimasu!!

Castlevania

Editor’s pick of Summer anime episodes

We ended another super sugoi anime season. In Sagrada Reset Asai Kei, Sumire and Haruki worked through countless mysteries looking for a way that the people of Sagrada can keep their superpower abilities. The anime ended perfectly. In Isekai Shokudou the cook prepared recipes for whoever stepped through the magic door to our world, be it lizard man, elf, mage, demon, dragon, fairy or even mermaid. When the anime ended we craved to see more and we hope there is another season. Castlevania blew us away, seeing the Belmonts struggles against the fiendish Dracula. Summer was a great season for anime, but now a new season is on the doorstep with new anime. Be sure to check out our top ten anime recommendations for the fall season!

One-punch man

Monthly News

Bungo Stray Dogs DEAD APPLE

Bungo Stray Dogs DEAD APPLE

Remember Bungo Stray Dogs? In the series, we met Nakajima Atsushi, just kicked out of his orphanage, standing by a river, on the brink of starvation, and there he rescued a man who was attempting suicide. That man was Dazai Osamu and a member of a special detective agency that deals with cases that are too dangerous for the police or the military. The series’ first season ran from April to June in 2016, followed by a second season from October to December 2016. In the first season, GRANRODEO performed the opening theme song “TRASH CANDY” and Luck Life performed the ending theme songs for both seasons. (“Namae o Yobu yo” and “Kaze ga Fuku Machi”)

If you loved Bungo Stray Dogs, you will be happy to know that Nakajima Atsushi and all your favourite characters are returning in a new movie, Bungo Stray Dogs DEAD APPLE and that is not all! Once again GRANRODEO will be performing the movie’s opening song and Luck Life will be performing it’s ending theme! Cast members that have been confirmed to return for the movie are Yūto Uemura as Atsushi Nakajima, Mamoru Miyano as Osamu Dazai, Kensho Ono as Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and Kishō Taniyama as Chūya Nakahara.

Staff members are also returning; Takuya Igarashi is returning to direct, as is Yoji Enokido returning to write the film, in collaboration with the original manga’s writer Kafka Asagiri. Nobuhiro Arai returns as character designer and chief animation director and Fumihiro Katagai as the mechanical designer. Music will once again be composed by Taku Iwasaki is returning to compose the music. Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple will open in Japan in early spring 2018. As more details of the new movie are revealed we will keep you in the loop!

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card

The official premiere date for the return of CLAMP’s Cardcaptor Sakura series has been confirmed to be January 7, 2018. The cast will include Sakura Tange as Sakura Kinomoto, Aya Hisakawa as Keroberos, Junko Iwao as Tomoyo Daidōji, Motoko Kumai as Syaoran Li, Megumi Ogata as Yukito Tsukishiro/Yue, Tomokazu Seki as Tōya Kinomoto, Nozomu Sasaki as Eriol Hiiragizawa and Emi Shinohara as Kaho Mizuki

Fans of the series will remember that Sakura Kinomoto is the main character of the anime Cardcaptor Sakura. She discovers that she has magical abilities after she frees a deck of magical cards by accident from a book in which they have been sealed. She’s given the task to catch the cards in order to save the world from an unspecified impending doom. Her name, Sakura, means cherry blossom in Japanese, and her surname Kinomoto means ‘the origin of wood’. According to a new promotional video released for the upcoming series, Sakura is now in middle school and have strange dreams…

Morio Asako, who worked on the first anime series and two movies, is returning to direct the new series. CLAMP’s Nanase Ohkawa will handle series composition while Kunihiko Hamada is the character designer. Maaya Sakamoto is also coming back to do the theme song ‘Clear” for the new series.

Fullmetal Alchemist

Fullmetal Alchemist live-action movie

We found a few news updates regarding the upcoming Fullmetal Alchemist live-action movie. Among the Fullmetal Alchemist fanatics mouths are salivating as they wait in anticipation of the live-action movie, we are also very glad that this is a Japanese project and not Hollywood that is making the movie, as Hollywood just do not have the ability to make live-action adaptation that gives you that ’anime-feel’. The closest that have come to that is the Ghost in the Shell live-action.

The official website for the upcoming Fullmetal Alchemist live-action posted a special trailer titled ‘You can learn about Hageren in one minute’. The video blends the manga art of Hiromu Arakawa, creator of Fullmetal Alchemist, with footage from the two anime series and the live-action film as an introduction to the history of this internationally revered anime franchise.

The website also revealed that Misia (Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans) will perform the movie’s theme song: “Kimi no Soba ni Iru yo” (I’m By Your Side). Misia created the song specifically for the movie, saying that she was inspired by the world of Fullmetal Alchemist as well as the bond between the two brothers. Edward and Alphonse. The song’s CD single will be available on November 29th.

Not familiar with the anime or manga? Here is a brief synopsis of the story. Through the arcane science of alchemy, two brothers tried to resurrect their dead mother. But something went wrong, and the resurrection failed, extracting a high price from the brothers. Edward Elric lost his entire right arm and part of his left leg and his little brother Alphonse nearly dies but is plucked from death as Edward desperately fused his brother’s soul to a suit of armour with alchemy before he passed out. Alphonse took his body to their adoptive family, the Rockbells who happens to be prosthetic (called automail in this world) experts, who fitted Edward with automail limbs. They set out on a journey, after recovering and learning more on alchemy at a special academy, to become State Alchemists, which will help Edward to do research as he aims to get their bodies back through alchemical means.

FullMetal Alchemist’sworld premiere will be on October 25 when they open for the Tokyo International Film Festival, and on December 1 the movie will open in Japanese movie theaters.

One-Punch Man

One-Punch Man

He is definitely no Bruce Wayne and definitely no Son Goku, but Saitama also known as One-Punch Man is a well-loved anime character. As you many of you may know, in the anime One-Punch Man, Saitama has an average life but secretly he is a superhero that looks for tough opponents. His problem is, however, that every time he finds a promising opponent the beats the living daylights out of them with one punch! He dreams to find a real challenge, a strong villain. Fanatiks of this anime show have been wishing for a second season to appear and it is happening, minna!

But there are a few changes that were announced regarding this second season. Shingo Natsume at Madhouse directed season 1 and it seems the second season is to be directed by Chikara Sakurai (episode director for Naruto Shippūden) at J.C. Staff (Shokugeki no Soma) production! Chikashi Kabuto (Corpse Princess) is still doing the character design and Tomohiro Suzuki (ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept.) will do series composition while Makoto Miyazaki (Triage X) will be in charge of the music. Cast members from the CD dramas and anime slated to return will be Makoto Furukawa (Saitama), Kaito Ishikawa (Genos), Yūki Kaji (Speed-o’-Sound Sonic), Hiroki Yasumoto (King) and Hellish Blizzard will be voiced by Saori Hayami.

Overlord

Overlord

Remember Overlord? The anime series ran for 13 episodes in 2015 and was a massive hit. The story is quite interesting. It plays off in the year 2137 and tells the tale of Momonga. When his favourite game, Yggdrasil is shut down he decides to not log out of it. NPCs start to feel emotions and other changes start to occur in this world. Momonga decides to take over this new world.

The Animate store in Machida, Tokyo posted something very interesting on their Twitter account. It was the cover of the upcoming 12th volume of Kugane Maruyama’s Overlord novel series. The jacket band on the volume reveals that Overlord’s second season will premiere in January 2018! The anime project will once again be animated by Madhouse. It is as if they were readying us for this because on February 25 the first Overlord compilation movie, Overlord: Fushisha no Ō opened and on March 11th the second one, Overlord: Shikkoku no Senshi. New scenes were added to both compilation movies.

Momijigari (based on the Japanese words momiji, “red leaves” or “maple tree” and kari, “hunting”) is the Japanese tradition of going to visit scenic areas where leaves have turned red in the autumn. Also known as kōyō (Kōyō is another way of pronouncing the characters for “momiji” and means “fall colours” or “leaves changing colours”.

Like ‘Hanami’ in spring, many Japanese people take part in this and cities like Nikkō and Kyoto are popular destinations during Momijigari events. This tradition has its origins in the Heian era as a cultured pursuit. It takes place mainly in the month of October.

Oden

Traditional Recipe of the Month

Since it is Autumn (Fall) in Japan people will look into nice hot dishes to keep bring warmth to the cold autumn nights. One such dish is Oden. Oden is a hearty stew that can be cooked over several days or in a few hours (depending on the cook) and is also a big hit in the winter season. It is quite easy to make and the ingredients can be ordered online, or at Japanese supermarkets (if you are lucky to have one in the area where you live). It is a savoury dish filled with flavours, due to its ingredients that usually include yam, taro, fish cake, hard-boiled eggs, and mushrooms. Some of these ingredients may sound like weird combinations to us Westerners but it is a beautiful yummy dish that deserves a chance to be sampled. If you love one-pot winter dishes, Oden may just be the dish for you.

Oden, often sold from food carts, can taste different from region to region in Japan. In Nagoya, some call it Kantō-ni and they use soy sauce as a dipping sauce, while in the Kansai area, they call it Kanto-daki and it is more strongly flavoured. In Shizuoka they use a dark coloured broth that is flavoured with beef stock and dark soy sauce, and all ingredients are skewered. They also sprinkle dried ground fish (can be Mackerel, sardine or katsuobushi) and aonori powder (edible seaweed) on top before eating. In Kagawa Prefecture the Udon restaurants love to offer Oden as a side dish to be eaten with sweet miso while patrons are waiting for their udon.

Here is a super yummy video where Francis the dog and granny shows us how to make a pot of delicious Oden.

Donquixote Doflamingo

Birthday of the month

Donquixote Doflamingo is the Captain of the Donquixote Pirates, a former Shichibukai with a frozen bounty 40,000,000 Beli on his head, Donquixote Doflamingo and our birthday boy for this month. His birthday is on the 23rd of October. This fiend became the King of Dressrosa Island by force, after grasping the throne from poor king Riku Dold III that he ruled with tyranny. Luckily Monkey D. Luffy and his Strawhat Crew defeated this monster and his crew and saved the Kingdom of Dressrosa. He has one of the creepiest laughs in the One Piece anime.

Donquixote Doflamingo is a devil fruit user. After he ate the Ito Ito no Mi it granted him the ability to create and manipulate strings. He can manipulate people like puppets by just moving his fingers. The strings themselves are extremely thin, some may even be invisible, and is almost impossible to notice or avoid them. What is more is that Doflamingo is quite capable of controlling more than one person with this dangerous ability.

Donquixote Doflamingo shares his birth month with a lot of great anime characters. Here is a list of the characters and their birthdates!

AMV of the month

Since it is Halloween in Japan, like many other places in the world we bring you a special Halloween AMV. The song is Marilyn Manson’s version of ‘This is Halloween’ and the anime is Soul Eater.

In Soul Eater the story revolves around three teams, all students at the “Death Weapon Meister Academy”, each team consists of a weapon meister and at least one weapon that can transform into a humanoid. They try to make the weapon that can turn into a humanoid into a ‘death scythe’ which can be fit for the academy’s headmaster, Shinigami (who is the personification of Death) to use. To reach this ghoulish goal, they must collect the souls of 99 humans and one witch, in that specific order; otherwise, they have to try all over again.

October Anime Challenge

It is a new month and we bring you a new anime challenge. Since it is so close to Halloween we thought that this months anime should be a treat! This month’s anime is none other than the classic 2007 occult detective series, Mononoke. In Mononoke we follow the character of a medicine seller who is a mysterious master of unnatural lore and supernatural perils. The anime takes place during the Edo period in Japanese history when there was a four-caste system. Samurai was considered the highest class and merchants (like our hero the medicine seller) being the lowest class. In that era, only samurai was permitted to carry swords, and thus to the shock of the people that the medicine seller meets, it is quite strange that he is carrying a sword… Why is such a low-class person carrying a sword? We will just find out when we take part of the challenge! Be sure to look on our FB page as the challenge is updated every week.

Anime Day

Anime Day!

On October 14, 2017, there is an Anime Day event at Cool Runnings, Centurion. It will run from 12:00 PM until 9:00 PM. The anime day will showcase the seasonal openers of the New Fall Anime series. Since it is the month of spookiness and Halloween, we will be celebrating by screening two anime horror movies that may just send chills down your spine. Entrance will be free and why not bring a friend to enjoy the anime viewing?! Be sure to visit the meetup group or our FB Event Page for more detail.